📍 Only the Best 10 in Seattle, WA

Mount Si. Eight miles round trip and 3,150 feet of elevation gain make this the trail every Seattle hiker does first, and the summit's Haystack Basalt scramble at the top is optional if the exposed rock isn't your thing — the main viewpoint just below it is plenty. A Discover Pass ($10 for the day) is required and checked regularly at the trailhead, and arrive before 8am on a weekend anyway or the lot will already be full.

Pike Place Market. Open continuously since 1907, making it one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers markets in the country, and it's still a working market first — the flowers, produce, and fish stalls exist for the same reason they always have, not just for the tourists watching. Free to wander, though almost everything inside it costs something once you start buying.

Original Starbucks, Pike Place Market. The very first Starbucks actually opened in 1971 a few blocks away on Western Avenue; this store took over the 1912 Pike Place storefront in 1976 and has stood in as the brand's origin-story landmark ever since, right down to the original, pre-redesign siren logo above the door — back before it was toned down to look less risqué for wider distribution. The line outside most days is long enough that the coffee itself is almost beside the point. Six dollars for a drink that tastes exactly like the one from the location down the street, which is sort of the whole joke.

Green Lake loop. It costs nothing to use and the loop stays flat for the full 2.8 miles, which is exactly why this is the default answer any Seattle runner gives when asked where to go — separate lanes for walkers and runners exist because the path gets that packed on a sunny weekend.